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Don't Underestimate Endlinks when Lowering
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01-20-2013, 05:56 PM | #1 |
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Don't Underestimate Endlinks when Lowering
So I've been playing around with the front sway for a few weeks now. Luckily a nice function of the asts is adjustable endlink collars. I've been lowered for about 2 years now but still on stock endlinks.
The car felt solid but had a little more front sway then I expected along with harshness in the front. So I really dialed in the links today to make sure there was almost zero preload on the front sway. Let me tell you the difference is night and day in the drive. Its so much smoother on bumps and just across the board. Also, there is much less sway in the front with the newer bushings, the old ones were pretty bad. So if you're lowered, take some time and look at your front endlinks, for under $100 it was worth every penny. |
01-21-2013, 08:07 AM | #3 |
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Since I didn't have a lift, I measured the height from the center of the hub to the top of the wheel well with the car on the ground. Mine was about 13.5 inches. I then jacked up the car, took off the tire and used a bottle jack to release weight off the endlinks, my links were wayyyy too short and it was definitely preloading the sway.
I then disconnected and jacked up the hub with the bottle jack till I measured the center of the hub to the top of the wheel well was 13.5inches. With the ASTs, they have adjustable endlink collars which I threaded down about 3 inches and to where the endlink slid into the strut and sway bar with no resistance. Now is this exact, no but it's the best I could do in a quick pinch. It's shocking how much smoother the car is over bumps with not as much preload on the front sway. |
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01-21-2013, 11:07 AM | #4 |
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This sounds like the problem I am experiencing. I just put Eibach springs on my car and it feels like it wants to bounce over a bump. At first I thought the Bilstein struts did not have enough dampening on the rebound. Is this what you experienced? Do you have any pics of the install and/or a part number for the end links?
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01-21-2013, 01:37 PM | #5 | |
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Since I'm unsure where the Bilstein endlink point is I can't be much help telling you how long of an endlink you'd need. But honestly, if you're using stock endlinks like I was for almost 2 years, you are doing yourself a disservice by not getting this problem updated with how nice the car feels now. In essence I was using the sway to eat up bumps by preloading instead of the spring rate I chose. As for the adjustable endlinks I'm unsure how they fix on hte xi, you may have to go custom length. |
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01-21-2013, 02:42 PM | #6 |
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I don't understand how the endlinks can pre-load the sway bar. The only load it can take is one side higher or lower than the other, by torsional twisting. Now maybe the rubber sway bar bushings (holding the bar to the chassis) are loaded/binding up, both twisting same way to get to the new lower ride height. If the bar is not free to move to a lower position, I can see needing to release & re-tighten them esp if they are stock.
Not disputing what you're saying just not seeing it in my head what you mean when you say the bar was pre-loaded. |
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01-21-2013, 02:52 PM | #7 | |
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The sway bar should be doing nothing when riding on a flat straight road, meaning if you reached underneath while the car is sitting with all weight on all 4 tires you should be able to undo the endlink bolt and pull off the endlink with no resistance(This is ideal). That is suppose to be how the endlink connects. But when lowering the car the strut gets shorter meaning the standard mount point on the sway bar point moves closer to the ground. So if you connect the stock length endlink, it pulls on the sway bar when weight is put back on the car and that causes preload on the sway and effects the effective spring rate since you aren't letting the springs work as they should. |
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01-21-2013, 04:17 PM | #8 | |
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01-21-2013, 04:27 PM | #9 | |
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01-21-2013, 04:55 PM | #10 | |
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The motion ratio if you work it back to the sway bar end is maybe (guessing) half the drop. Meaning the amount the bar end moved down is maybe half the drop of the car @ the wheel well due to the fact that the bar end and strut mounting point is well inboard of the tire. Anyway I am glad you brought this up. I released the binding on all the other major suspension bushings when I installed the Konis and that made a big difference. But I forgot the sway bars! Doh. |
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01-21-2013, 06:44 PM | #11 | |
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As for me, I'm 13.5 inches from hub center to wheel well or about 1.5 fingers all around which I guess is pretty low. |
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01-21-2013, 11:25 PM | #13 |
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So what u guys recommend,adjustable endlinks? I just replace my with meley hd,but not adjustable...
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01-22-2013, 07:53 AM | #14 | |
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Someone would have to do some measurements because if you don't have load on the car when finding out the length of endlink you need you are going to be off by a few inches once the car is put back on the ground it will put load on the bar. |
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01-22-2013, 08:04 AM | #15 | |
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01-22-2013, 08:35 AM | #16 |
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I watched your vid, good breakdown of the replacement. But I guess I question how you knew how much to jack up the hub without measuring the height when the car is on the ground.
With the car on the ground I measured from wheel/hub center to the wheel well/fender which came to 13.5 inches. So when I put the car up on the jack, I knew I had to jack up the hub till the center measure 13.5 inches to the wheel well/fender. That is the best way I could find how to get an accurate measurement of what load actually would be with the car on the ground. So with just jacking up the hub without knowing how high to jack it up, it isn't possible to know how long the endlink truly needs to be. |
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01-23-2013, 05:07 PM | #17 | |
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01-23-2013, 05:55 PM | #18 |
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http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=789939
Check the last post, length is not much of influence, its the mounting point of asts. |
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01-23-2013, 07:18 PM | #19 | |
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01-24-2013, 06:40 PM | #21 |
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